A 45-year-old law college lecturer who was one of the two women who dared to enter the Sabarimala temple and became a target of the Sangh parivar has been physically assaulted yet again.

Bindu Ammini, a lecturer at Government Law College in Kozhikode and a Dalit activist, was assaulted in full public view by a man identified as Mohan Das at a local beach on Wednesday evening. Police on Thursday arrested the accused, who is said to be associated with the Sangh parivar.

A video of the incident filmed by an onlooker, who later shared the clip with Bindu, shows how the accused manhandled her. While Bindu is seen shielding herself and then launching a counter-attack, the man wearing a mundu (dhoti) and black shirt eventually overpowers her and pushes her down on her knees while continuing to beat her even after his mundu slips off. Some passers-by can be heard urging him to stop beating her although none tries to stop him.

“I had gone to meet a lawyer friend whose office is opposite the beach. A few men identified me as the woman who entered Sabarimala. That was when this man, who is an RSS worker, attacked me,” Bindu told The Telegraph on Thursday.

“I don’t feel safe in Kerala anymore and the only option is to move to some safer place,” she said, adding that she would.

Bindu suffered bruises in the incident that has sparked widespread condemnation in the state.

The police have registered an FIR under Sections 509 and 323 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.

Minister for social justice R. Bindu said on Thursday that such criminal acts would not be allowed in Kerala.

“The reason for the attack is not about beliefs or difference of opinion, but the fascist mentality of finishing off what is not agreeable,” the minister said in a Facebook post, promising stringent action.

But Bindu Ammini, the victim, wondered how the minister could miss the religious angle. “How can she say it’s not about a belief system? All these attacks against me are linked to my entering Sabarimala,” retorted the lawyer-activist.

Ammini Wayanad, president of the Adivasi Vanitha Prasthanam, was among those who came out in Bindu’s support.

“This happened in Kerala and not Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh. Such attacks will continue and she might even be killed if the state government doesn’t restore her security cover,” Ammini told this newspaper.

A spokesperson for the BJP said he had nothing to say about the incident.

Bindu and another activist named Kanakadurga — then aged 42 and 44, respectively — had entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala temple with police escort under the cover of darkness on January 2, 2019, over three months after the Supreme Court lifted all age barriers for the entry of women into the hill shrine in Pathanamthitta district. Earlier, women of childbearing age were not allowed into the temple.

Since then, she has particularly been a target of those opposed to her entry into the temple.

“I have so far faced more than 10 attacks and countless threats from total strangers. The government should realise that I am one of the two women who have been allowed police security by the Supreme Court,” Bindu said.

While the Kerala government had provided security to Bindu and Kanakadurga, the former’s guards allegedly cast a lot of caste-based aspersions on her.

“I had lodged a complaint a year ago after policewomen assigned to me began treating me like an accused and made casteist comments. But instead of taking corrective action, the police withdrew my security cover without any explanation,” Bindu said.

However, Kanakadurga continues to be under police protection. “We are still good friends. But what I don’t understand is while she gets security cover, I am left vulnerable to such attacks,” Bindu added.